Railway car interior wall structure

ABSTRACT

Vertically spaced rail members that extend longitudinally of the railway vehicle across and between the car vertical wall posts to prevent transported lading such as boxes, or other types of cartons from contacting the vertical wall posts during vehicle impact resulting in damage to the lading. The rail members provide a smooth car interior and include transversely extending flange portions which strengthen the rail members and the railway car side wall structure by forming a channel shaped section between adjacent wall posts.

United States Patent [1 1 Snyder et al.

[ 1 Jan.9, 1973 [54] RAILWAY CAR INTERIOR WALL STRUCTURE [75] Inventors:Richard C. Snyder, Michigan City, lnd.; Robert R. Parmenter, Chicago,111.; Steve L. Suvada, Michigan City, Ind.

[73] Assignee: Pullman Incorporated, Chicago, Ill.

[22] Filed: Dec. 28, 1970 21 Appl. No.: 101,672

[52] U.S. Cl ..l05/409, 105/369 A [51] Int. Cl. ..B61d 17/08 [58] Fieldof Search-.l05/369 A, 409, 423; 296/28 R,

[56] References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS 2,3l6,696 4/1943 Johnston..l05/409 2,577,504 l2/l95l Barber 105/369 A 2,585,976 2/l952 Teeter..l05/409 3,4l0,228 ll/l968 Burr et al. ..l05/409 Primary ExaminerDrayton E. Hoffman Attorney-Hilmond O. Vogel and Richard J. Myers [57]ABSTRACT Vertically spaced rail members that extend longitudinally ofthe railway vehicle across and between the car vertical wall posts toprevent transported lading such as boxes, or other types of cartons fromcontacting the vertical wall posts during vehicle impact resulting indamage to the lading. The rail members provide a smooth car interior andinclude transversely extending flange portions which strengthen the railmembers and the railway car side wall structure by forming a channelshaped section between adjacent wall posts.

3 Claims, 4 Drawing Figures PATENTEDJ/m 9191s INVENTORS R.C. SNYDERROBERT PARMENTER S.L.SUVADA BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of theInvention The field of art to which this invention pertains is railwayboxcars and in particular to the interior wall structure of suchvehicles.

2. Description of the Prior Art Prior art car interior wall structuresgenerally comprise a continuous sheet structure extending between theends of the vehicle and between the floor and the roof structure. Sincea prime purpose of the interior wall surface is to prevent lading fromabutting or contacting the vertical wall posts which results in damageto the lading, it is apparent that much of a continuous inner wallstructure is unnecessary and not used to its fullest extent. Therefore,it is desirable to obtain an interior wall structure which prevents thelading contacting the vertical wall posts and eliminates inconveniencesassociated with a continuous sheet or an abutting sheet type of wallconfiguration.

SUMMARY This invention relatesin particular to a freight car havinglongitudinally spaced vertical wall posts positioned between an outsidemetallic sheet and the car interior. A purpose of this invention is tosolve a problem created when lading within the freight car contacts thevertical wall posts during transport and is prevented from movinglongitudinally upon vehicle impact to thereby absorb the impact forces.Another object of the present invention is to provide a rub railstructure extending between the vertical wall posts of the railwayvehicle so as to prevent lading from being damaged through contact withthe vertical wall post.

It is another object of the present invention to provide a car interiorrub rail which is attached to the vertical wall post and includesstrengthening flange portions extending transversely which also preventthe exposure of sharp edges to the interior of the car which coulddamage the lading or injure workers.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS FIG. 1 is a partial perspectivedrawing with portions cut away of a railway freight vehicle employingthe present invention;

FIG. 2 is a top plan sectional view of a portion of the wall structureinvolved in the present invention;

FIG. 3 is a side elevational view of the interior'of the freight vehiclewall structure-with a portion cut away;

FIG. 4 is a sectional view taken along line 4-4 of FIG. 3.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF INVENTION With reference now to the drawings andin particular FIGS. 1 4, it is noticed that FIG. 1 illustrates a railwayfreight car of the usual construction which comprises the usual spacedside sill member 11 and includes a wheeled truck 12 upon which the bodyof the vehicle is supported. The freight car 10 includes side wall units13 and longitudinally spaced corrugated end walls 14. A roof structure15 encloses the top of the vehicle. The floor 16 encloses the bottom ofthe freight car and supports lading which may be as illustrated bycartons 16a, 16b.

The side wall units 13 include an outer wall sheet or skin 17 whichisgenerally a thin metallic material automatic welded to the vertical wallpost 18 which are longitudinally spaced of the freight car 10. Thevertical wall posts 18 are of a Z-shaped configuration and include aninner flange l9 exposed to the interior of the freight vehicle and anouter flange 20 fixedly attached to the outer wall skin 17. The innerand outer flange portions 19, 20 respectively are spaced from oneanother by the central body portion 21. Thus constructed, the railwayfreight car 10 comprises a generally rectangular shaped closedconstruction having outer wall portions attached to and supported byvertical wall posts 18. Corner posts 18a are positioned at each of thefour corners of the vehicle to facilitate assembly and final attachmentof the end walls 14 to the side walls 13.

It is known. in the railway art that to protect lading being transportedby a railway freight car it is desirable to prevent the lading or thecartons 16a, 16b, as illustrated in FIG. 1, from coming in contact withthe vertical wall posts 18 during an impact. Impact loads areeffectively absorbed by the lading when the lading is free to moverelative to the transporting vehicle. Thus in moving impact loads areabsorbed. An undesirable situation is created in railway vehicles of thedescribed configuration when transported material such as the cartonsillustrated are not permitted to move longitudinally because ofunavoidable contact with the vertical wall post 18. Thus it is desirableto provide a simple and inexpensive and easily assembled method ofspacing the transported lading from the vertical wall post to preventcontact between the wall post and the lading resulting in damage to thelading during car impact.

The rub railing members 22 of the present invention are spacedvertically along the inner flange portion 19 of the vertical wall post18 and extend longitudinally of the railway vehicle between the dooropenings (not shown) and the end wall 14. The rub rail 22, asillustrated in detail in FIGS.-2, 3, 4, includes a flat enlarged outerbody portion 23 which abuts the inner flange 19 of the vertical wallpost 18 and is fixedly attached thereto as by a weld or other convenientmethod of fastening. The upper flange 24 and the lower flange 25 extendoutwardly of the vehicle toward the outer wall skin 17 to define achannel shaped section and to thereby lend strength to the rub rail andto the side wall unit and also to conceal the sharp edges 26 fromcontacting the lading and damaging it. The flange members 24, 25 are soformed as to provide a smooth interior surface having rounded corners.

7 Thus it is noticed that the rub rail member 22 of the presentinvention effectively prevents the cargo from contacting the verticalwall posts and being damaged thereby and also provides a thin interiorskeletonized wall structure which is strong and yetprovides forincreased volumetric capacity of the freight car. The inherent rigidityadded to the rub rails by the upper and lower flanged portions 24, 25respectively to increase the torsional and bending strength produces aninherently stiff member which adds structural integrity to the sidewall.

The foregoing description and drawings merely explain and illustrate theinvention and the invention is not limited thereto, except insofar asthe appended claims are so limited, as those skilled in the art who havethe disclosure before them will be able to make modifications andvariations therein without departing from the scope of the invention.

What is claimed is:

l. A railway freight carrying vehicle having side walls with outer wallsheathing supported by longitudinally spaced vertical wall posts, cargorub rail means forming a vehicle interior wall and including:

a plurality of vertically spaced and longitudinally extending rub railmembers fixedly attached to said wall posts to form a skeletonized innerwall of said freight vehicle;

each rail member having an enlarged attaching portion overlying saidvertical wall posts and having a rigidifying portion positioned betweensaid vertical wall posts and said rigidifying portion havingchanattachment of the outer wall sheathing and having inner flange meansfor attachment of the enlarged attaching portion of the rub rail means.3. The invention according to claim 1, and: said rub rail means being acontinuous unitary sheet means having said channel portions integrallyformed therein.

1. A railway freight carrying vehicle having side walls with outer wallsheathing supported by longitudinally spaced vertical wall posts, cargorub rail means forming a vehicle interior wall and including: aplurality of vertically spaced and longitudinally extending rub railmembers fixedly attached to said wall posts to form a skeletonized innerwall of said freight vehicle; each rail member having an enlargedattaching portion overlying said vertical wall posts and having arigidifying portion positioned between said vertical wall posts and saidrigidifying portion having channel portions extending toward the outerwall sheathing; said rigidifying portion having a web section extendingbetween the channel portions and generally co-planar with the enlargedattaching portion to thereby provide a continuous smooth vehicleinterior wall surface.
 2. The invention according to claim 1, and: saidvertical wall posts having outer flange means for attachment of theouter wall sheathing and having inner flange means for attachment of theenlarged attaching portion of the rub rail means.
 3. The inventionaccording to claim 1, and: said rub rail means being a continuousunitary sheet means having said channel portions integrally formedtherein.